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Maelle: Wait for us here. It’s dangerous for you near Papa. We’ll have to move fast, I can’t maintain them for very long. Tomorrow comes.
Monoco: These Expeditioners are glorious wreakers of havoc!
Maelle: The “Sword of Lumière.”
A perfectly normal trash can. There is a message inside.
Trash-can man: Actually, I am Gommaging like everyone else, looks like my plan didn’t work. During my time in this trash can, I found a rare treasure. I am entrusting it to you now. Farewell.
Sciel: No… The 32s…
Verso: Your father. He’s at the tower.
Maelle: Yes.
Lune: Maelle…
Verso: Ah. The opera house…
Monoco: Hmm.
Lumière has suffered much damage. There’s something in the water.
Ask Esquie to bring it to the surface.
This is the journal of Expedition 60. A legendary expedition known for its… unorthodox tactics.
Sciel: Nevrons from the Axon Islands! What are they doing here?
Maelle: Like Axons, they’re Papa’s creations, not Clea’s.
Maelle: Papa is somewhere past the gardens. I can’t sustain the Expeditioners much longer.
Verso: Merde! We need to defeat them fast.
Sciel: Your father’s been extra inspired.
Monoco: A most enticing challenge.
Maelle: Papa’s over there. And the chroma we need to bring back Lumière.
Sciel: Even I can sense him…
Lune: We’d better make sure we’re ready.
Maelle: Papa.
Renoir: Alicia.
Maelle: Please. I just want you to understand what this Canvas means to me-
Renoir: I do understand. I know how powerful and intoxicating it is, how deeply attached we can become to the worlds we pour our hearts and souls into. I was enthralled and it nearly killed me.
Maelle: That doesn’t mean you have to erase Verso’s Canvas!
Renoir: Child, do you think I want to? After all the sorrows we’ve endured, do you really think that I want to destroy that last piece of his soul?
Maelle: Then don’t. Don’t.
Renoir: Life keeps forcing cruel choices. We do what we must.
Sciel: Grief often blinds us. And we make choices we can never take back.
Renoir: You grieve for two.
Sciel: I grieve for many.
Lune: The choices of parents leave indelible marks upon their children. But ultimately, the voices in their head have to be their own. You cannot set the boundaries of their life for them.
Maelle: After the fire—You wanted me to find—new joy in life. And I tried. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t. Verso died because of ME. How do I get from that to joy?
Renoir: Child, it will get better. I promise you. But this is not the way. Your friends speak truth, and it changes nothing. You can hate me, but that’s a choice I must make. As your father, I must look out for you. Especially when you can’t look out for yourself.
Maelle: You treat me as if I’m still five…
Renoir: I treat you as if the shadow from the worst day of our lives is going to suffocate you and take you from us too. Enough. I said enough.
Renoir: Stop this insanity. It’s time to go home.
Monoco: I do love a challenge, but this is beginning to irk me.
Lune: Fuck. He keeps regenerating.
Sciel: Maybe we focus on the Axons first?
Maelle: (gasp)
Verso: No! She can’t-
Maelle: Maman??
Renoir: Aline, you’re going to kill yourself? It’s too soon for you to return to any Canvas! Aline! Look at Alicia. She can’t be here! Aline, it’s supposed to be you and me, not you AGAINST me.
Aline: Go home, Renoir. Go Paint something else.
Renoir: Why am I the only one who sees this? Put aside the Canvas. It’s killing you both.
Maelle: Not this time!
Renoir: Ironic. Your mother was the one who saved me, when I lost myself in a Canvas. She—She taught me how to safely use our gift, how to soar without flying too close to the sun. We—We Painted hundreds of Canvas worlds, pushing the very boundaries of creation. And she never let me forget that every day we spend here has a price. Yet—(cough) Yet here we are now.
Maelle: So trust her. If she’s doing this, then—
Renoir: I trust what she taught me. This is not a game! You think you know what’s at stake, but you don’t!
Maelle: I know precisely what’s at stake! You want control, you want to feel like you’re doing something. You couldn’t save Verso, so you want to save us. Except you’re not. Destroying the Canvas won’t help us move on, it’ll just deny us the one place that helped us feel again.
Renoir: 67 years. 67 years, I spent trapped within the Monolith. But I persisted. I persisted. Do you know why? Do you know why I CANNOT leave her or you behind? This is what I see every day. I cannot spend another day with living corpses. Since the fire, our family has crumbled. Aline in the Canvas. Clea fighting her solitary war. You, a living ghost. Verso’s death broke us. I want it to be fixed. I need it to be fixed—I—(cough). I cannot lose you too.
Maelle: Don’t you see?? That’s how I feel about them! I can’t lose them either. I’ve lost too much. Papa, see. I’ve lost so much.
Renoir: We’ve both lost so much.
Maelle: Papa. I don’t want to lose you either. I’m not leaving you forever. Just a little longer.
Renoir: I want to trust you, but…
Maelle: You can.
Renoir: I’ll keep the light on for you. I hope you find peace. Hold onto each other.
Lune: Verso…
Verso: I’m sorry.
Verso: Hi. You’re tired of painting, aren’t you? I’m tired too…
Maelle: That’s—Oh. You shouldn’t be able to be here.
Verso: Maman’s gift.
Maelle: Why did you run in? It’s dangerous for you here.
Verso: “See things as they are, not how you want them to be.”
Maelle: What?
Verso: You lied. To your father.
Maelle: No, I—
Verso: He saw it too. But he wanted to believe. You’re going to die here. Why don’t you just leave? You can always come back.
Maelle: The moment I leave, Papa will erase this canvas.
Verso: This is not worth your life.
Maelle: What life? My life of loneliness in a shell of a body? With no voice and no future?
Verso: You’re Maelle, no matter where you are. You don’t need this canvas.
Maelle: But everything I want is here. Here I have a chance to live, Verso. To live. Out there, I merely exist.
Verso: “Life keeps forcing cruel choices.”
Maelle: Stop quoting Papa!
Verso: It’s time to stop Painting.
Maelle: Verso… Papa also said, “Hold onto each other.”
Verso: I’m sorry.